Question of the Day - 17 May 2022

At the moment, the Athletics are in complex negotiations with the City of Oakland and no closer to a Las Vegas move, although Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred has been busily machinating to make Vegas a done deal and team officials continue to visit southern Nevada and make pronouncements about the possibilities of relocating.

The most fireworks on the battlefront have been the verbal fusillades between Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf and Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman, who have been trading barbs about each other’s cities. Schaaf, for instance, chastised Vegas for its “tacky architecture” and "gross desert."

Clearly, the A's want out of Oakland and have reportedly made offers on several real estate parcels for sale, including a rumor about the Tropicana. It's true that the Las Vegas Aviators have outdrawn their MLB counterparts, which says as much about the love of sports in Las Vegas as the lost love between the A's and Oakland.

If the baseball situation is complex, the NBA one is just plain inscrutable. True, Oak View Group, which has a record of getting such things done, has pitched a $3 billion 20,000-seat arena for the intersection of Blue Diamond Road and Las Vegas Boulevard and already owns the necessary land. 

As one close follower of the NBA saga, Vital Vegas author Scott Roeben, points out, “Oak View is a legit entity, which is refreshing … but being able to finance an arena is a far cry from drawing a team. The developers have said they’ll build an NBA-ready arena, but there are a number of viable venues in town already.” (T-Mobile Arena, anyone?)

The NBA will make a decision on an expansion city at the end of this year, but even a brand new arena probably won't be the deciding factor. Rather, the expansion fee, reportedly $2.5 billion, will. Those able and willing to pay it will probably be few in number. Luckily, one of those few is Las Vegas-based investor Jay Bloom, who’s heading up a would-be expansion group. There will be two expansion cities in play, with Seattle described by NBC Sports as a lock on one of them. 

Fortunately, Bloom is politically well connected in Nevada and has co-backers who include motivational guru Tony Robbins and local investor Marcus Banks III. Between Bloom’s money, the presence of NBA-ready venues, the huge success of pro sports in Las Vegas, and Sin City’s ongoing relationship with the NBA (including the Summer League and G-League Showcase), a pro men’s basketball team appears to be Las Vegas’ to lose.